Star City

Star City
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Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
In story information
Type	City
Notable people	Oliver Queen

Star City is a fictional city that appears in stories published by DC Comics, best known as the traditional home of the superheroes known by, or affiliated with, the shared alias of the Green Arrow. Beyond that, it is also known to other characters of the DC Universe as both a port city and a haven for artists in many of the media, from print to audio/visual to music. Its real world counterpart is the San Francisco Bay Area.

Established history in the comics

According to several published accounts, Star City was incorporated as a city under its current name over 200 years ago.

Before moving on to service in first Metropolis and later Gotham City, Maggie Sawyer began her career as a police officer in Star City.

The first costumed vigilante to serve as mayor was Thomas "Steelclaw" Bolt, who adopted an undercover persona as a costumed criminal as part of his efforts to bring local crime under control. He died in office of that attempt.

During the years that Green Arrow spent outside of Star City, at least one other costumed crime-fighter operated there: Chase Lawler, one of the several known Manhunters.

The final Green Arrow storyline before One Year Later featured Doctor Light and Merlyn detonating explosives, leaving nearly a third of Star City in shambles in what becomes known as the "Amsterdam Avenue Disaster".

In the One Year Later storyline, Green Arrow becomes the mayor of Star City.

Locations through the decades

Star City's location, like those of Metropolis, Gotham City, and other cities in the DC Universe, was uncertain for many years, with varying depictions over the decades, including the Great Lakes in the 1960s and Massachusetts Bay from the 1970s until the late 1980s. In one 1970s reference, it was stated that Star City was in Connecticut. Currently, northern California has been settled upon as its location, specifically in the coastal regions north of San Francisco Bay.

At least one map has been published in 1985 and was occasionally modified by Mayfair Games during the years that the company held the license for role-playing game adaptation rights for the DC Comics universe, detailing Star City's geographical layout. Though the Atlas placed Star City on California's Pacific Coast, north of San Francisco, the layout used for the city map resembled the geography of metropolitan Chicago, but reversed, so that it would be on the Michigan side of Lake Michigan: So the neighborhood of "East Gary" was approximately where the real Gary, Indiana, is, but it was on the Pacific Ocean instead of Lake Michigan.

In Birds of Prey # 119, Star City is depicted as being in the San Francisco Bay region, although the published map erroneously substitutes Star City for San Francisco. Also, the city of Platinum Flats, the home of the Birds at the time of publication, is described as "half an hour" away.

Established city characteristics

Landmarks

Among the more notable landmarks established by various Green Arrow creative teams include the following:

Star Bridge

This suspension bridge is one of city's primary visual landmarks, known for a giant star sculpture atop each tower in the span of the bridge, connecting Star City's various regions.

The Grell Museum

Named after Mike Grell, who wrote and drew a definitive era of Green Arrow in the 1980s

Papp Stadium

Named after George Papp, one of Green Arrow's original co-creators from the 1940s

Neighborhoods

Known neighborhoods include:

The "Triangle"

Long fought over by the city's various organized crime factions until the intervention of the freelance criminal Deadshot as depicted in his second mini-series.

Lamb Valley

Detailed in the pages of the Green Arrow collected edition "Straight Shooter".

The South End

Introduced in Green Arrow v.3 # 60, in the wake of the events of Infinite Crisis and 52.

The Glades

Named in Green Arrow v.3 # 61. One of the districts directly abutting the Sound End.

Orchid Bay

The downtown section, and site of City Hall. Named in Green Arrow v.3 # 63.

Adams Heights

Named in Green Arrow v.3 # 67. Possibly named in honor of artist Neal Adams, long associated with Green Arrow.

Statistics

Star City's population was given in Green Arrow (City Walls Pt.3) as being 5 million.

Sports teams

Star City Rockets: Baseball, they play in Papp Stadium.

Star City Thunder: Basketball, they play in Tinder-Smith Garden.

Other media

Star City was briefly mentioned by Lex Luthor in the Smallville sixth season episode "Reunion". In "Freak", Tobias is sent to Star City because Oliver Queen said he would be given a cornea transplant. A computer generated panorama of Star City can also be seen in the first episode in the online Smallville spinoff short "The Oliver Queen Chronicles".

In the Smallville eighth season episode "Bride," Jimmy Olsen was sent to Star City for medical attention after being critically injured by Doomsday. It's unlikely that Smallville's Star City would be located around the Bay area as Smallville is located in Kansas.